Jimmy returned with the gun, and quite out of breath.
"Now," said Frank, "from the difference in colour there are evidently males and females here, and we must get one of each; and we must do it without disturbing the others, as if we don't frighten them they may stay here and breed."
They watched for some time before they could get the desired chance, and then two birds flew, toying with each other, to some distance from the rest. They were evidently male and female. Frank put the gun to his shoulder, a report rang through the wood, and both the crossbills, for such they were, fell dead to the ground.
Frank might have shot many more, but he was a thorough naturalist, and, as such, he disliked the idea of indiscriminate and useless slaughter. He had procured specimens sufficient, and he humanely let the others go.
"Now, Jimmy, we have got a prize. Crossbills are not seen every day. Let us go to the boat-house and skin them, and read something about them in our books."
The boat-house, which belonged to Mr. Merivale, stood at the edge of a little bay of the Broad. It was a large, substantial structure, projecting out into the water, and having a large room above, approached by a staircase. This had been appropriated by Frank as his "den," and here it was that he and his friend transacted all their private business, held their natural history meetings, skinned and stuffed birds, and kept their collection of birds' eggs and butterflies.
CHAPTER II.
Stuffing the Crossbills.—The proposed Yacht.—An impaled Woodcock.
Frank led the way up stairs, and unlocking the door they entered the room, and piling up some brushwood in the grate they lit it, and soon had a roaring fire. The room now presented a very cheerful appearance. A large window at one end looked out over the glittering Broad. The room itself was plainly furnished with a few deal chairs and a table, and at one side of it was an old-fashioned bureau, in the drawers of which the boys' natural history collections were stored. Around the room were several shelves, on which were some very creditably stuffed birds, flower-pots filled with mould and covered with gauze bent over cane arches, the use of which will presently appear, and a good number of books on natural history, chiefly of a cheap and popular kind.